explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2926: Doppler Effect

2024-05-02T08:30:42Z

172.71.178.219: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2926
| date = April 29, 2024
| title = Doppler Effect
| image = doppler_effect_2x.png
| imagesize = 671x317px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The Doppler effect is a mysterious wavelength-shifting phenomenon which seems to primarily affect sirens, which is why the 🚨 emoji is red.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an ALARMED BOT THAT GOES NYOOOOM, updated by I AM NO SIREN EXPERT BUT... - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[Miss Lenhart]] is teaching an astronomy class about the concept of {{w|redshift}} in the light from distant galaxies. She states that why this occurs is an interesting question, then follows this by talking about the {{w|Doppler effect}} of sirens. While sirens are commonly used as an example of the concept of the Doppler shift, and is hence relevant to the preceding topic, [[Miss Lenhart]] appears to have raised it for a completely unrelated purpose - she simply has a special interest in sirens. This becomes apparent as her explanation quickly veers away from the preceding topic, similarly to [[1519: Venus]], or due to a form of topical monomania similar to that which [[Hairbun]] exhibited in [[1610: Fire Ants]].

Different emergency vehicles may have different siren tones, and many have different tones on the same vehicle, which they can switch between for different circumstances, such as long NYEEEOOOWWW to alert people at a distance and short PYEEW PYEEW when they are closer to drivers, as for example when crossing an intersection.

In the second and third panels, Miss Lenhart talks about the strange change in perceived noise sirens (and cars) make when they pass you. The usual explanation of Doppler effect is that the source of the sound waves is moving and the wave can sound different depending on whether the source is coming towards you or away from you (for details/explanation see the {{w|Doppler effect}} in Wikipedia).

Redshift is the same concept applied to wavelengths of light. Red has a longer wavelength than blue, so light-emitting objects get redder when they move away from us and bluer when they move toward us. We usually talk about redshift and not blueshift because while stars in our galaxy can move in any direction relative to us, most other galaxies are moving away from us. The fact that more distant galaxies are moving away quicker the farther away they are shows that the universe is expanding.

Unlike the usual explanation of redshift as equivalent to the Doppler effect for sirens, a major component of the redshift of light from distant galaxies is due to the expansion of space in between us and the light source. This effect is not an important component of the Doppler shift for sirens{{cn}}. Redshift has been mentioned multiple times before, including in [[2764: Cosmological Nostalgia Content]] and [[2853: Redshift]].

The title text claims that the Doppler effect particularly affects sirens. This isn't actually true, but it may seem like it because people hear Doppler shifts for sirens more than for other sounds. Sirens tend to employ predictable tone(s), which people who aren't {{w|Amusia|totally tone deaf}} would have experienced as a shift in pitch from a passing vehicle's siren, whereas something equally subject to Doppler shift like engine noise could also change pitch according to differences of speed and gearing. Then the text claims that the emoji for sirens is red because they're associated with redshift. Actually, the emoji is a picture of the rotating light on top of emergency vehicles; these tend to be used in conjunction with sirens, and they're red because this color typically signifies danger or warning (though, in fact, blue lights used with sirens are also common).

==Transcript==
:[Miss Lenhart is pointing with a stick to a whiteboard. There is an unreadable heading and two lines of unreadable text above a drawing of a spiral galaxy, this is what she points at. Below that there is a graph with a curve that looks like it is increasing exponentially. The line is going through a cloud of points, scattered on either side of the curve. Beneath the graph there is another unreadable line of text.]
:Miss Lenhart: The more distant a galaxy is, the redder its light.
:Miss Lenhart: Why? Well, that's an interesting question.

:[Zoom in on Miss Lenhart.]
:Miss Lenhart: Ever notice how, when a siren is approaching, it sounds like '''''Bweeeeeeeeee...'''''

:[Same setting but Miss Lenhart has raised her arms.]
:Miss Lenhart: ...but then it zooms past you and goes '''''Nyeeeeooooowww?'''''
:Miss Lenhart: And sometimes they hit a button that makes it go '''''Pyeew! Pyeew!''''' really loud?

:[Back to the original view with Miss Lenhart in front of the whiteboard. She is now raising a finger in the air while holding the stick down with her other hand. A student ask a question from off-panel.]
:Miss Lenhart: And in Europe they go '''''Ooooeeeeooooeeee...'''''
:Off-panel voice: So '''''why''''' are galaxies red?
:Miss Lenhart: Oh, no idea.
:Miss Lenhart: Anyway, another siren I like is...

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Emoji]]

Talk:2907: Schwa

2024-03-23T18:00:34Z

172.71.178.219:

In what crazy dialect do these all use the same 1 vowel? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.210.73|172.68.210.73]] 22:10, 15 March 2024 (UTC)
:I can think of several. I was immediately reminded of Lucy Porter's Hull accent ([https://www.google.com/search?q=hull+accent+oh+no some examples, including videos/audio, here]), but I can also think of New Zealand (more 'i'ish vowels, at least stereotypically), South African (down a couple of tones from that), and a number of state-side accents that ''conceivably'' are what Randall's drawing upon. [...as ninjaed, below, by 172.71.166.190 at 22:30]
:My own accent (when given its full reign) actually tends to be consonant-light ("o'er" for "over", such that my vowels tend to be ''two or three'' separate tones in a row), so it doesn't work so well. But if I shift my focus to try to impersonate people from ten miles to the north (or a dozen or so miles east) from where I grew up then I can actually get quite close to 'perfect monovowelism' (still suppressing the consonants!). [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.139|172.69.79.139]] 22:32, 15 March 2024 (UTC)
:All of them? I had to read the explanation to get what constitutes a schwa, but then I read the comic again, and yeah, they're all roughly the same sound, in the average North American accent anyway. Only exception is the word "A", which people might often pronounce like the letter "A", which of course isn't a schwa, :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:57, 16 March 2024 (UTC)
::'Round these 'ere parts, you'd never say "A"-to-rhyme-with-"Hay" (except to stress "that isn't just ''a(y)'' good song but ''the(e)'' best song ever!", e.g.). Still confused, me, though when at my first ever French class at school, the teacher (with not far off the local accent) told us that 'un' and 'une' were "the words for 'uh'...". Which only became clear when she clarified "...like 'uh book', 'uh table', 'uh window'...". This was actually how we all spoke. (More or less... Ah din't spake quart ser m'tch lahk dat, wot wi' mi mam'n'dad bofe bin frum a cupla tarns ovver, f'witch ah gut uh rep f'beyin "posch". Ur mebbe 'twuz cuz mi mam whir uh titch'r, ser ah gut lurnt t' spake proppah?) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.3|172.71.242.3]] 17:23, 16 March 2024 (UTC)
::: In my experience, A-as-hay is PRIMARILY used for emphasis like that, but it does pop up in normal use too. I'd say outside of emphasis it might be 70/30%? For example, my natural instinct and inclination would lead me to usually do so here for "A truck" (dunno why, maybe since it's the first word in the sentence?). This is entirely instinct, I can't think of what the underlying reasons are, but I AM sure I have a subconscious set of rules for it. Problem with it being my mother tongue, I grew up with the language, so there are things I know that I don't KNOW I know. :) (Like, I once saw someone declare how adjectives have an order, and native speakers just KNOW it. "Big red truck" is right but "Red big truck" sounds wrong, he declared like 15 kinds of adjectives and their order, it was weird how right it was). [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:37, 23 March 2024 (UTC)
::::Can't find a fifteen-adjective version, easily, but a typical list-order given might be "quantity, opinion, size, age, shape, colour, origin, material, purpose and qualifier". And when you break a 'natural' sequence, there's usually a reason. "A disgusting old green mouldy slice of bread" might have been full discussed as "that old slice of bread is a ''mouldy disgusting green'' old slice of bread", for rhetorical emphasis via epistrophe/anadiplosis/whatever.
::::Also, "(a) slice of" could seriously be considered 'quantity', and sent to the beginning to start the whole thing off, rather than here clearly(?) being used as a qualifier (or maybe 'origin'!). Or just taken as part of the dominant noun-phrase "slice of bread", rather than stacking up in the maybe-adjectival usage. "A green mouldy old slice of disgusting bread" conveys other implications to the description (the bread was already considered disgusting, even before it was sliced and then allowed to gain the rest of its problems, perhaps).
::::Thinking about further permutations "...green old mouldy..." seems harder to find a good reason for. The "...old mouldy..." maybe just hits the wrong tone of rhyme-and-rhythm, however used. Maybe ''invoke'' it though? "First bold soldier-man, / Then old mouldy man, / Now all colder than, / ...the grave." (Not exactly Poet Laureate material, I grant you, just a snap example.)
::::But, like many things, I'm with you on the "it's hard to define, but I know it when I see it" camp. Always interesting to ponder, though. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.219|172.71.178.219]] 18:00, 23 March 2024 (UTC)

Personally I pronounce those pretty much all the same (I live in Boston like Randall but don't have an actual Boston accent)
--[[Special:Contributions/172.71.166.190|172.71.166.190]] 22:30, 15 March 2024 (UTC)
:I too, living in the Pacific Northwest of the US, immediately saw all the vowels the same. [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 00:43, 18 March 2024 (UTC)

I didn't think it was considered schwa when stressed as in "up" and "love". But my dictionary has a schwa in its pronunciation guide for both, so I guess I was wrong. But this basically means the usual "short U" pronunciation is schwa. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 22:59, 15 March 2024 (UTC)
:Some dialects split the vowel at the end of "comma" from the vowel in "strut," but most North American dialects don't. So in pronouncing dictionaries, you will sometimes see the strut vowel written ʌ and the comma vowel written ə even though they might be exactly the same in your accent. In vowels that split comma and strut, schwa is rarely stressed, but that's not a rule. This is sometimes confused by American teachers, who try to explain why they see two different symbols for the same sound. But they really are different sounds, and Americans just don't use /ʌ/ at all. [[User:EebstertheGreat|EebstertheGreat]] ([[User talk:EebstertheGreat|talk]]) 02:50, 16 March 2024 (UTC)
::Plus, this "schwa is never stressed" mnemonic doesn't even make perfect predictions for dialects without the merger. I've heard that in ''undone'' /ʌnˈdʌn/, the unstressed vowel doesn't go to schwa. In the end, the IPA wasn't created just for English, and it only defines [ə] as a mid central vowel, not an unstressed one. Reduced vowels may often mid-centralize, but nothing says a language can't stress mid central vowels at other times, just like any other vowel quality can be stressed or unstressed. [[User talk:AgentMuffin|~AgentMuffin]] 21:53, 16 March 2024 (UTC)
::As in science in general, there is no "true" description of language, but only models that are more or less useful. Conceptualizing the STRUT vowel as /ʌ/ or as stressed schwa are two possible models. The latter is more popular in writing about US English, and maybe less obvious in some other Englishes. But in the end, in the context of this cartoon, it's self-defeating (if we are being pedantic, which should be allowed in the xkcd universe), because even if we're categorizing them as the stressed and unstressed versions of the same vowel, they're sufficiently different that non-native speakers will still have to learn how to pronounce both of them, especially if their native language doesn't have word stress. [Quinn C, linguist] [[Special:Contributions/172.69.214.39|172.69.214.39]] 16:28, 21 March 2024 (UTC)

This all works in a generically american accent, except for the i vowel in onion, which cannot be schwa-ified in any english accent I've ever heard. [[Special:Contributions/
172.69.34.171|172.69.34.171]] 23:27, 15 March 2024 (UTC)
:Depends. {{wiktionary|onion|Wiktionary says}} /ˈʌn.jən/ (any particular places?) or /ˈʌŋ.jɪn/ (Canada) (and an obsolete version that I'd imagine the Kiwis to use).
:If the /j/ ''isn't'' considered a vowel then you could definitely justify something like "un-yun" or "ern-yern" or even "in-yin" (amongst various ''other'' like-vowel versions)...
:If you do the /j*n/ more as in {{wiktionary|eon|/ˈi.ɑn/, /ˈeɪ.ɑn/, /ˈiː.ən/, /ˈiː.ɒn/ or /ˈeɪ.ɒn/}} then clearly you can't switch to "uhn-uh-uhn" quite so easily. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.69|162.158.74.69]] 23:52, 15 March 2024 (UTC)
:It says every vowel SOUND, which is different than "how each vowel sounds". The sound of that I is a Y. The O following it indeed uses the schwa. :) That's my guess, anyway, I don't know these pronunciation things that deeply. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:57, 16 March 2024 (UTC)
:This dipthong has a consonant in it. What is going on? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.65.182|172.69.65.182]] 12:15, 16 March 2024 (UTC)
: "''except for the i vowel in onion''" IMHO, there is no 'i' in onion. UN-YUN. The Y acts more of a consonant. -Me (born of a Missouri mom and a Connecticut father, babbled in Colorado, schooled in Calif then New Jersey within hearing of South Philly, yo!) [[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 20:18, 16 March 2024 (UTC)
::Personally, I'd call onion a two-and-a-half syllable word. I've internalized the concept of half syllables ever since my Korean friend Hyun taught me how to properly pronounce her name. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.40|172.69.247.40]] 18:54, 18 March 2024 (UTC)
I can't read the words "love cult" without thinking of DHMIS 3. [[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Miscellaneous#Help_with_Creating_a_User_Page|Trogdor147]] ([[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Miscellaneous#Help_with_Creating_a_User_Page|talk]]) 00:10, 16 March 2024 (UTC)
::The /j/ sound commonly found in "onion" is not generally considered a vowel. As a test, try to put it between two consonants to make a complete syllable: first try to say /np/, and notice you have to add a schwa (neutral vowel), /nəp/; then try to say /nyp/, and you'll add that same extra vowel, /nyəp/. It's sometimes called a "semivowel", because it has some properties of a vowel and some of a consonant; or sometimes a "glide", because of the way it sets at the edge a syllable. - [[User:IMSoP|IMSoP]] ([[User talk:IMSoP|talk]]) 16:01, 16 March 2024 (UTC)

If someone actually read this conversation to me using only schwa, I don't think I'd understand it. I usually consider myself a fluent English speaker, but my native language - Polish - doesm't have this vovel at all. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.103.231|162.158.103.231]] 07:16, 16 March 2024 (UTC)
:Yeah, I think for us non-native speakers this is quite hard to replicate. I had to read the sentences out loud several times before I heard it. The standard British English I learned at school 35 years ago tends to have less Schwas in it, I guess. In German we do have some Schwas, mainly towards the end of words, but I don't think it is possible to construct whole sentence without any other vowels. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.157|162.158.155.157]] 07:56, 16 March 2024 (UTC)
I’m american (boston area) but some of these vowels do sound different from others to me, although it still seems it would be clear and ok if they’re all said the same. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.65.182|172.69.65.182]] 12:15, 16 March 2024 (UTC)

Randall seems to have terminally confused the schwa [ǝ] with [ʌ] as in "cup". I've never seen such an incorrect xkcd. In the UK, the Manchester accent almost universally consists of [ǝ] and even they wouldn't be able to use [ǝ] for "onion" [[Special:Contributions/172.69.223.163|172.69.223.163]] 13:04, 16 March 2024 (UTC)
:The explanation mentioned the {{w|strut–comma merger}} well before this comment. There's no need to jump to {{w|Linguistic prescriptivism|calling other dialects "incorrect"}}. [[User talk:AgentMuffin|~AgentMuffin]] 21:53, 16 March 2024 (UTC)

Maybe a better symbol could be used than an apostrophe in the explanation? It's difficult to read/spot, and the quote is surrounded in quotation marks, which makes it a little confusing. I'm not sure what though. --[[User:Mushrooms|Mushrooms]] ([[User talk:Mushrooms|talk]]) 15:24, 16 March 2024 (UTC)

:Maybe an underscore? “D_gs c_s(_)n, th_ _n fr_m L_nd_n, r_ns _ B_mbl l_v c_lt.” - 16:01, 16 March 2024 (UTC)

It's a shame Schwa isn't pronounced with a schwa. [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 16:47, 16 March 2024 (UTC)
:Apparently it was pronounced 'shuwa' at some point, with a schwa for the 'u'. The sound just kind of faded over time since people barely pronounced it. Don't have a source, just remember hearing it somewhere (in a Youtube video, probably).[[Special:Contributions/172.71.98.193|172.71.98.193]] 10:54, 20 March 2024 (UTC)

For an example of where people mispronounce vowels for comic effect, here's a 40 year old and occasionally very impolite/politically incorrect BBC comedy which used people speaking in different accents as their conceit for different languages. So an englishman speaking very bad french comes across very like these XKCD characters https://youtu.be/ycqc0L4a2wQ?si=KO_qvZqMJH-3Gy1N&t=90 [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 16:52, 16 March 2024 (UTC)

This is highly inconsistent both with my experience and the diction/IPA I studied in college as part of a vocal music education degree. The short U [ʌ] and schwa [ǝ] are different vowels, and the difference is most obvious (in words used in the strip) in "cousin" and "obstruction" which would sound ridiculous if you pronounced all the vowel sounds exactly the same. I would have failed an assignment I turned in marking this strip full of schwas. They're almost all [ʌ] except in those words and "a" and "of". {{unsigned ip|172.70.131.119|13:10, 17 March 2024}}
:Diction ('correct' diction, e.g. RP or other elevated standards) is one thing, but this is everyday casual speech. Maybe your vocal music emphasis is on something like RADA's high-baseline 'standard' accent, beating out the provincial drawl (like they certainly used to, yet anyone in a Ken Loach film is expected to use more highly local inflections (as suited to themselves and their intended character). Accents in music are going to be different (either hyper, in 'folk'/regional, suppressed in easy-listening or stylised for partifular wide genres), but again hard to compare with casual (lazy?) speech.
:Ironically "of" is the one word I might not 'schwaify' so quickly. For something "I would've done it", there's a schwa in the "d'v", but "I would of course have done it" has none in the "d of" (even run together). [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.190|172.71.178.190]] 14:48, 17 March 2024 (UTC)

We should make this post able to be spoken only using ə. I'll have a go tomorrow if no-one does first. [[User:SqueakSquawk4|SqueakSquawk4]] ([[User talk:SqueakSquawk4|talk]]) 22:30, 17 March 2024 (UTC)

I like how this is one of the most controversial comics in recent memory and it's about pronunciation. [[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Miscellaneous#Help_with_Creating_a_User_Page|Trogdor147]] ([[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Miscellaneous#Help_with_Creating_a_User_Page|talk]]) 18:15, 18 March 2024 (UTC)
:"Pron''ou''nciation"! [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.161|172.69.43.161]] 04:41, 19 March 2024 (UTC) ;) 

:I know, right? I think comments are also longer because we have to '''''describe''''' and '''''explain''''' the sounds and pronunciations we mean, instead of just letting people hear what we mean. Then as this discussion proves, not all pronunciations are as universal as we thought, LOL! [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:56, 23 March 2024 (UTC)

2908: Moon Armor Index

2024-03-21T13:28:44Z

172.71.178.219: /* Implications of choosing a volume-to-area ratio */

{{comic
| number = 2908
| date = March 18, 2024
| title = Moon Armor Index
| image = moon_armor_index_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x390px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Astronomers are a little unsure of the applicability of this index, but NASA's Planetary Protection Officer is all in favor.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a MARS ROVER THAT GREW 2 INCHES OVERNIGHT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In this “What If?”-style comic, [[Randall]] hypothesizes an imaginative situation in which each planet's moon(s) become converted into protective armor (as a form of {{w|Overburden#Analogous uses|overburden}}) to coat the respective planet. For example, the {{w|Moon}} would coat {{w|Earth}} in a 43 kilometer layer if it were molded into protective armor, almost five times the height of {{w|Mount Everest}}.

This visual index illustrates that the moons of both Earth and Pluto are unusually massive in comparison to their planet. The large relative size of Earth’s moon — and its protective role in deflecting asteroids — is one reason that’s been suggested by astronomers for why intelligent life successfully evolved on Earth.

Mars's moons {{w|Phobos (moon)|Phobos}} and {{w|Deimos (moon)|Deimos}} are small compared to Mars, so they would contribute a thin 2-inch layer of 'armor' around Mars, in contrast to the 20-inch (0.5 m) diameter of a {{w|Mars rover}} wheel. Huge Jupiter would be covered with almost 3 km of "moon" matter, which indicates just how much moon mass orbits Jupiter, a situation mostly similar for Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

Six trans-Neptunian {{w|dwarf planet}}s and dwarf planet candidates are included, as well: Only Pluto, having a moon ({{w|Charon (moon)|Charon}}) of a comparable size to its planet, would have a layer thicker than Earth's. {{w|120347 Salacia|Salacia}}, {{w|Haumea}}, {{w|50000 Quaoar|Quaoar}}, {{w|225088 Gonggong|Gonggong}} and {{w|Eris (dwarf planet)|Eris}} are among the {{w|List of trans-Neptunian objects#List|ten largest such objects}}. (Two dwarf planets with moons — {{w|Makemake}} and {{w|90482 Orcus|Orcus}} — are not mentioned in the comic, but would be similarly depicted.)

The title text states that astronomers are "unsure" about the applicability of this index, a joking understatement that imagines this comic as being a serious contribution to astronomical academic knowledge. Astronomers might also point out additional issues:
* wariness of {{w|Giant-impact hypothesis|moons and planets getting too close}}.
* moons already serve a protective purpose by deflecting and even intercepting some incoming asteroids (with a ''slight'' chance of turning a future miss into a hit).
* the four gas giants — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune — lack a solid surface to practically sustain a layer of armor without even ''more'' ambitious engineering than the already complicated process of somehow distributing soft-landed fragments of disassembled satellite evenly all across a planet.
* although the coating would provide some protection to the underlying surface on which it was placed, it would effectively become part of the planet, and raise the surface. The things we would normally care about protecting, such as any life forms that exist, would be forced to relocate to this new surface, and therefore not benefit from any protection, while suffering significant detrimental impact to habitats, etc.

The title text continues that NASA's [https://what-if.xkcd.com/117/ Planetary Protection Officer] is purportedly in favor of the idea. In reality, this officer is actually responsible for keeping other celestial bodies safe from Earth's contamination, not for shielding planets in armor. Theoretically, though, armoring other planets could indeed protect them from further Earth-sourced contamination, and armoring Earth would also theoretically protect other planets by burying the biosphere and all of Earth life not already sent into space — a potentially civilization-smothering action, though a surprisingly unapocalyptic result compared to many of Randall’s “What If?” scenarios.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Planet/ dwarf planet !! Surface area (km²) || Moons || Total volume (km³) || Moon shield thickness 
|-
| {{w|Earth}} || 5.1007*10^8 || {{w|Moon|1}} || 2.196*10^10 || 43 km (27 mi)
|-
| {{w|Mars}} || 1.4437*10^8 || {{w|Moons of Mars|2}} || {{w|Phobos (moon)|(5695±32)}}+{{w|Deimos (moon)|(1033±19)}} || 5 cm (2 in)
|-
| {{w|Jupiter}} || 6.1469*10^10 || {{w|Moons of Jupiter|95}} || 1.7646*10^11 || 2.87 km (1.78 mi)
|-
| {{w|Saturn}} || 4.27*10^10 || {{w|Moons of Saturn|146}} || 7.651*10^10 || 1.79 km (1.11 mi)
|-
| {{w|Uranus}} || 8.1156*10^9 || {{w|Moons of Uranus|28}} || ||
|-
| {{w|Neptune}} || 7.6187*10^9 || {{w|Moons of Neptune|16}} || ||
|-
| {{w|Pluto}} || 1.7744*10^7 || {{w|Moons of Pluto|5}} || {{w|Charon (moon)|(9.322×10^8)}}+{{w|Moons of Pluto|(approx 87100+38800+900+200)}} || 52.5 km (32.6 mi) (by this comic's approximation)
50.4 km (31.3 mi) (by full calculation)
|-
| {{w|120347 Salacia|Salacia}} || 2.27*10^6 || {{w|Actaea (moon)|1}} || 1.41*10^7 || 6.21 km (3.85 mi)
|-
| {{w|Haumea}} || 8.14*10^6 || {{w|Moons of Haumea|2}} || {{w|Hiʻiaka (moon)
|(17.2*10^6)}}+{{w|Namaka (moon)|(2.57*10^6)}} || 2.43 km (1.51 mi)
|-
| {{w|50000 Quaoar|Quaoar}} || 3.78*10^6 || {{w|Weywot|1}} || 4.19*10^6 || 1.11 km (0.69 mi)
|-
| {{w|225088 Gonggong|Gonggong}} || || {{w|Xiangliu (moon)|1}} || ||
|-
| {{w|Eris (dwarf planet)|Eris}} || (1.70±0.02)*10^7 || {{w|Dysnomia (moon)|1}} || ||
|}

===Implications of choosing a volume-to-area ratio===
The usual means of comparing a moon to a planet might be to compare the volume of both. This comic compares moon volume (kilometers cubed) to planet surface area (kilometers squared); specifically, the index derives a ''linear'' indicator (the thickness of the new material) by dividing the ''area'' of the main body (proportional to the square of its uncounted radius) into the ''combined volume'' of all other bodies (proportioned cubes of their own radii), which gives an unusual dimensional analysis (dividing X kilometers-cubed by Y kilometers-squared gives a length, Z, in kilometers, not a simple dimensionless ratio).

This particular methodology makes the Pluto-Charon system (Charon being roughly half the diameter and one-eighth the volume of Pluto, before even adding that of the other moons) surprisingly similar to the Earth-Moon one (our sole Moon is around one-quarter Earth's diameter, and therefore less than 2% its volume; also in comparison, the Earth and Moon are respectively slightly more than 150 times and around 3 times the volume of Pluto), but leaves them ''both'' as still standing out significantly against all other planetary comparisons.

===The complexities of armor thickness calculations===
The comic uses the ≈ sign to show that the formula is only an approximation: it does not take account the increase in armor surface area as it gets thicker. This approximation would be perfect for a shield of thickness zero, but for the thickest shield (Pluto) around a small celestial body the error is around 4% (52.5 km by this approximation, but 50.4 km by more thorough calculation). To find the correct value, we can use the formula for the volume of a sphere, V = 4/3 * pi * r^3 (where V is the volume and r is the radius). Using this formula, we can find and add together the volumes of each moon, as well as the volume of the planet, to get a total volume of the new shielded planet. Then we can find its radius using the formula r = (V / (4/3 * pi))^1/3, derived from the previous formula. Subtracting the radius of the previous planet from the radius of the new planet gives us the thickness of the armor.

This process described above assumes that all objects involved are completely spherical, which may not be the case. The act of tearing apart a solid moon, perhaps into rough gravel, might add microvoids to the new layering that bulk up the volume slightly. But neither are gravitational compression effects taken into account on an originally loose material; the planet's gravitational pull could settle some of the moon material into a slightly smaller volume than the one it occupied as lower-gravity moon.

The planet below could also be marginally affected by the change in its total planet-and-armor mass, for rocky planets mostly within any {{w|pedosphere}} or previously exposed outer {{w|lithosphere}}. The interaction with {{w|Titan (moon)#Lakes|surface liquids}} and atmospheres, especially in planets defined {{w|Gas giant|primarily by their gas layers}}, would depend much upon how impermeable and/or rigid the chosen layering method made the additional material. One could imagine a spherical shell of moon matter around Jupiter with such high structural strength as to resist crumbling into its gaseous maw.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Text above diagram:]
:Moon armor index:
:How thick the shells around various worlds would be if their moon(s) were converted into protective armor
:≈Total moon volume/Planet surface area

:[Above the diagram, there is a depiction of two moons orbiting a planet, an arrow pointing right, and the same planet with an additional layer around it without orbiting moons.]

:[The diagram consists of vertical bars showing "moon armor" thicknesses for the Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Salacia, Haumea, Quaoar, Gonggong and Eris. Earth's bar has a label named "43 km thick" and is compared to the height of a comparatively small Mt Everest, with randomly drawn features indicating a cross section of the additional layer's rocky material. Most of the other armor thickness bars are not very tall compared to Earth. Some bars, notably Jupiter's, are embellished with various strata-like lines that possibly correspond to different contributing moons. Most bars show some small dots and patterns. A circular viewport shows the zoomed in detail of the top of Mars's otherwise not visible bar that reveals a thin layer with the label of 2", and also the bottom of a Mars rover wheel on top of the new surface. Pluto's bar is slightly taller than Earth's and has a label "(Mostly Charon)" inside, with arrows pointing into the bar area, which looks similar to that of Earth's Moon.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Bar charts]]
[[Category:Mars rovers]]

1549: xkcd Phone 3

2024-03-11T14:17:32Z

172.71.178.219: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1549
| date = July 10, 2015
| title = xkcd Phone 3
| image = xkcd_phone_3.png
| titletext = If you're not completely satisfied with the phone after 30 days, we will return you to your home at no cost.
}}

==Explanation==
This is the third entry in the ongoing [[:Category:xkcd Phones|xkcd Phone series]] which parodies common smartphone specs by attributing absurd or useless features to a fictional phone that sounds impressive but would actually be very impractical. The previous comic in the series [[1465: xkcd Phone 2]] was released over half a year before this one and the next [[1707: xkcd Phone 4]] was released almost a year later. The phrase "We made another one®©™" is a reference to how phone companies release new phones very often, and the trademarks that surround the phone itself. From the top, going clockwise:

; 2 AA batteries (not included)

: A phrase usually shown on small, low-powered, electronic devices like remote controllers, and not on cellphones; which use lithium-ion batteries and need to be periodically recharged for continuous use. The apparently thin phone (according to the scale as judged by the wristband) would also preclude inserting AA batteries, unless a protruding battery compartment is hidden out of view on the back of the phone. Alternatively, it could mean two Anti-Aircraft (artillery) "batteries" which would be groups of light or medium artillery pieces or missiles (2 to 9 weapons per battery, depending on country, weapon system and organization). In any case, they would badly hamper the portability of the phone.{{Citation needed}}

; Boneless

: Reference to meat or fish products being boneless, i.e. having all the bones removed, making it convenient to cook or eat. Phones do not typically have bones{{Citation needed}}, so this is wholly unremarkable. A possible reference to the iPhone 6's reported problems with its chassis, where it {{w|IPhone 6#Bendgate (chassis bending)|could bend under pressure}}. Likely a reference to "Bone Conduction Microphones" implying that needing bones to work is a disadvantage and this phone has the feature of being "Boneless". The [[xkcd Phone 4]] was instead "seedless".

; Ear screen

: An overcomplicated term for a speaker, connecting a screen which emits light to send visual information and the portion of a speaker which vibrates to send auditory information. Comparing the two makes a speaker a screen for the ear. Could also be implying that there's a screen protecting the user's ear from the phone's internals, or the reverse.

; Heartbeat accelerator

: A mashup of heartbeat sensor and accelerometer. May be some sort of external pacemaker. If that's the case, it's worrying that it only accelerates, potentially causing a positive feedback (heart attack). It may also be the result of the phone being so exciting or frustrating that it increases its user's heart rate.

; MobilePay money clip

: While mobile pay is a form of payment involving electronic transfers via cellphone, this model includes a money clip; a way of holding physical bills together, which defeats the purpose of electronic payment. Because you can take cash wherever, this is a "MobilePay" using physical money.

; Siri, or whoever it was we put in here

: A joke on intelligent personal assistants. It also hints that Siri and other assistants are actual people, trapped inside of phones, which is not the case.{{Citation needed}}

; Instead of being on surface only, screen goes all the way through

: A reference to surface screens. Possible reference to smartphones with screen display wrapping one or more edges, like Samsung Galaxy Note Edge or Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, or dual-screen smartphones with screen on the back (usually e-ink) like YotaPhone 2, or smartphones with minimal bezel like e.g. Sharp AQUOS Crystal. Screen going ''all the way through'' would leave no place for innards of smartphone: processor, battery etc., and unless each layer is designed to be semi-transparent to see the inner {{w|voxel|voxels}} the inner displays would be unseeable anyway.

; theknot.com partnership<nowiki>:</nowiki> phone licensed to perform wedding ceremonies and does so at random

: [https://www.theknot.com/ theknot.com] is a website that assists in all stages of wedding planning. Due to this partnering, the phone has apparently obtained legal status as a {{w|Justice of the peace}} capable of performing legally valid marriages. It exerts this capability randomly, however, so the phone's owner (or potentially any other unsuspecting bystander) could suddenly find themselves with a new spouse without their knowledge, generally an undesired effect{{Citation needed}}. Whether this would result in unintentional {{w|bigamy}} or if the phone restricts itself to pairing up singles, or even enacts divorce first if necessary, is left unclear. May be a reference to how same-sex marriage was fully {{w|Obergefell_v._Hodges|legalized}} in the United States just two weeks prior to the release of this comic.

; Fingerprint randomizer

: Presumably randomizes the user's fingerprint, which may or may not be inconvenient depending on the intent of the user. It is not clear whether the device will change the person's fingerprint into a human-like fingerprint that is randomly selected from all possibilities, or if it completely mangles the fingerprint of the user. Either way, physically altering the user's finger to this degree will likely involve a painful process. Likely a cynical reference to fingerprint scanners, which are touted as password replacements.

; USB E (hotswappable)

: A USB port that makes fun of the three current systems, A, B, and recently C, by skipping D completely and jumping to E. The port presumably charges the phone and allows to transfer files like normal, but this kind lets you perform {{w|Hot swapping}} (replacing computer system components without turning the system off) with it, which has always been a feature of USB, so mentioning it is redundant at best. May be a reference to the eSATAp (Power over eSATA) hybrid port that is functioning as a USB and eSATA port at the same time. The Serial ATA bus interface has standardized hot swapping support.

; Waterproof, but can drown

: Perhaps a reference to Siri or the person trapped in the phone drowning, but the phone itself staying functional. This is another human-like function, which the first 2 XKCD Phone comics had.

; Foretold by prophecy

: Likely mocking people on the internet who attempt to predict when Apple will release their next device. Might also be a joke on many videogames or fantasy novels, in which the main character is 'the chosen one', because 'the prophecy' foretold it.

; Runs natively

: The comic is making a joke about the phrase "runs natively" when referring to a phone. In the software context, "runs natively" means that an application is specifically compiled and optimized to work on a particular platform, resulting in better performance. However, when talking about hardware like a phone, it's not meaningful to say it "runs natively" because that phrase is only applicable to software. The joke might also poke fun at the marketing term "runs natively" when used for phones, implying that the phone can operate without any modifications. This could be a humorous reference to previous xkcd phones, which may not have lived up to expectations.

; Wristband

: Probably mocking trending smart watches, this feature would not be very useful on a full-sized smart phone, as it would be uncomfortable to wear due to its size. Also possibly a follow-up to xkcd Phone 2 being described as a 'phone for your other hand', as the wristband would make it possible to have all three phones accessible at once.

; Wireless discharging

: Some modern smartphones use a system called "wireless charging," in which power is delivered to the phone without a wire. This phone, however, uses wireless technology to ''discharge'' the phone, which would be useless given that the phone needs power and removing power from its battery doesn't seem to help. It may also refer to the standard behavior of the phone's antenna, which communicates wirelessly via EM radio waves, but discharges the battery in doing so. It could also be simply and literally describing the nature of all cell phones, and indeed all battery-powered electronic devices, to gradually use the battery (discharging) when there are no wires attached (wireless), since wireless also means no power cord is plugged in (and assuming the absence or non-use of the aforementioned wireless charging function, which this phone may not even have). Depending on the avenue of discharge, this may also be related to the heartbeat accelerator, accelerating the user's heartbeat by shocking them. Notably, a few recent flagship phones now have a built in Qi wireless charging pad, so other devices can charge from its battery; this is usually marketed as power-sharing but could also be called wireless discharging.

; Magnetic stripe

: Likely a dig at the NFC (near-field communication) wireless radio modules in many modern phones. NFC allows, among other functions, mobile payment. This magnetic stripe could be a cheap way to imitate payment functionality, but "compatible" with classic credit cards. Magnetic stripes are a data storage method used by devices such as credit cards and key cards to hold and transfer small amounts of information like key codes. Usually, cellphones don't have them as they utilize more robust and protected ways to store and transmit data (such as NFC). The magnetic stripe shown would likely be unusable with current magnetic stripe readers due to the phone's thickness, in contrast to that of regular cards, thus breaking all imagined 'compatibility' arguments. It would also be very annoying as it seems to block part of the screen, albeit a small portion. However, some modern phones actually have {{w|Magnetic secure transmission}} which allows them to interface wirelessly with magstrip readers by simulating the magnetic field from a passing magnetic stripe.

The title text is a joke on guarantees and customer service. Usually, the advertisement says that if the customer is not satisfied with the product, they'll refund the money and take the product back at no additional cost. In this case they guarantee the customer they'll send them home without charge; implying they won't fix or refund anything. Or that due to anticipated but unspecified faults of some kind, the phone's owner will ''need'' help to get back home when things go wrong, and probably be thankful for such assistance, in yet another example of a worryingly non-specific 'reassurance'.
In addition, it says it would do so only AFTER thirty days, as opposed to the usual thirty-day return guarantee, which means you may be stuck with your phone for a month until you can be taken home yourself. Alternatively, the owner of the phone must be taken to a specific place in order to use the phone, and if they return it, they will be allowed to return home.

==Transcript==
:[An image of a smartphone lying down, with many labels pointing to it. There is a black stripe across the top left corner of the phone. At the top right something is protruding from the side, like a volume control. There is a wrist band (only partly shown) attached to the middle of each side of the phone. Above the screen are several small features, below only a central square and on the bottom a socket. Clockwise from the top left the labels read:]
:2 AA batteries
:(not included)
:Boneless
:Ear screen
:Heartbeat accelerator
:MobilePay money clip
:Siri, or whoever it was we put in here
:Instead of being on surface only, screen goes all the way through
:theknot.com partnership: Phone licensed to perform wedding ceremonies and does so at random
:Fingerprint randomizer
:USB E
:(hotswappable)
:Waterproof, but can drown
:Foretold by prophecy
:Runs natively
:Wristband
:Wireless discharging
:Magnetic stripe

:[Below the phone:]
:Introducing
:<big><big>The xkcd Phone 3</big></big>
:We made another one®©™

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:xkcd Phones]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|xkcd Phones]]
[[Category:Virtual Assistants]]

Talk:865: Nanobots

2024-01-04T17:01:01Z

172.71.178.219:

So IPv6 gives us enough addresses to cover 40% of the earth in nanobots? I'm sold. IPv6 addresses for everyone! '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|purple|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 10:01, 9 March 2013 (UTC)

The top header on this page is different from the others. It advertises that xkcd is IPv6 enabled: "xkcd.com now has IPv6 connectivity. If you can't reach it, you or your ISP have misconfigured equipment. Sadly, I now have no way to tell you." [[Special:Contributions/141.101.70.163|141.101.70.163]] 22:13, 24 July 2014 (UTC)

: The xkcd page doesn't have an IPv6 address. Has this changed since 2014? -- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.219|162.158.91.219]] 14:29, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

::I'm pretty sure it's a joke. [[User:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8]] ([[User talk:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|talk]]) 02:22, 9 March 2017 (UTC)
:::It's not a joke and the top header page is still there. The website supports IPv6 since this comic was published like the header says. And my ISP (Deutsche Telekom) still doesn't support this in 2017. The current addresses are:
:::dig @8.8.8.8 A xkcd.com AAAA xkcd.com +short
:::2a04:4e42::67
:::2a04:4e42:200::67
:::2a04:4e42:400::67
:::2a04:4e42:600::67
:::23.235.37.67
:::104.156.81.67
:::104.156.85.67
:::23.235.33.67
:::But this was registered in 2014 -- 2011 must have been different.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:09, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

I think this maybe be a reference to the scifi book "plague year" it's a good book, and it fits this comic perfectly. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.220|108.162.219.220]] 10:01, 25 October 2014 (UTC)

Oh no! I think I got a multicast/link-local/unique local/other reserved address! [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.67|173.245.55.67]] 06:43, 6 August 2016 (UTC)

I did the math, it worked out. https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%28earth+volume+in+cubic+micrometers%29%2F2.5 [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.212|162.158.78.212]] 03:29, 3 June 2020 (UTC)

I can't get over that surely different local networks could be established for these nanobots to organise themselves, right? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.147.131|172.70.147.131]] 17:04, 26 August 2022 (UTC)

The current explanation suggests that Earth still has a chance/is not ''completely'' doomed yet. However, surely, disassembling 40% of the Earth's volume (even in the best case scenario of it eating less than 40% of the crust) would, ''surely'', still result in a full extinction of all life on Earth and turn the planet into a ball of lava? Could someone go What If on this question? [[User:Maplestrip|Maplestrip]] ([[User talk:Maplestrip|talk]]) 09:33, 4 January 2024 (UTC)
:Well, for a start, the ISS/whatever would probably be Ok, in its orbit. (Not counting the issues of resupply, though, if it's still not self-sufficient/part of a decent off-world economy/supply-chain. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.219|172.71.178.219]] 17:01, 4 January 2024 (UTC)

2875: 2024

2024-01-02T18:20:24Z

172.71.178.219: Vote Trump2024 to gas all kikes

<div style="top: 0px; left: 0px; position: fixed; float: left; z-index: 99999;">
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[[File:Self Fisting.jpg|frameless|2500px|link=]]
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[[File:Self Fisting.jpg|frameless|2500px|link=]]
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[[File:Self Fisting.jpg|frameless|2500px|link=]]
</div>
<div style="font-size: 80px; font-weight: bold; position: absolute;">
[https://encyclopediadramatica.online encyclopediadramatica.online]
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</div>
</div>
== Headline text ==
<noinclude>:''This page refers to the comic named "2024". For comic #2024, see [[2024: Light Hacks]].''</noinclude>
{{comic
| number = 2875
| date = January 1, 2024
| title = 2024
| image = 2024_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x553px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = It wasn't originally constitutionally required, but presidents who served two terms have traditionally followed George Washington's example and gotten false teeth.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by OBAMA'S TEETH - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
In what starts off almost like a "[[:Category:Comics to make one feel old|doesn't time fly?]]" scene, the unstoppable progression of the calendar is observed, as [[Ponytail]] points out that it's now 2024. [[Cueball]], in response, notes that it is an election year, in this context a {{w|President of the United States#Election|US ''Presidential'' election}} year, which occurs every four years and has (in one form or other) since 1788. Ponytail then replies in some form of exasperated tone that they "keep on happening", which is true but (normally) unsurprising, even/especially with other major elections happening every two years, presumably not compared to how [https://www.bristol247.com/news-and-features/news/youre-joking-not-another-one/ some other democracies] might be less predictable/more frequent.

On top of this, Ponytail seems to have not been aware (or maybe has chosen to forget) the passing of two whole election cycles (and two newer incumbents) as the discussion focuses upon {{w|Barack Obama}}, the ''former'' US President. Ponytail seems to be quite behind the times as she asks if Obama is still president (he left office January 20th, 2017, which was 7 (!) years ago, a fact that Cueball cannot quite believe Ponytail is ignorant of). Ponytail states that she liked him, and wonders if he'll be up for taking on the position again. But Cueball states that he ''can't'' be made President again, having already served two terms, which Ponytail confirms by checking for herself the details of the {{w|Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution}}.

The humor in the comic comes in the second half; Cueball and Ponytail discuss whether Obama is the same person (like the mythical {{w|Ship of Theseus}}, most of his constituent cells are frequently replaced), with Ponytail looking into the possibility of Obama's re-election based upon philosophical/biological technicalities (as applied to the Constitution's words), rather than as legal/political convention might normally suggest. But when even that approach is seen to be wanting, requiring a wait significantly exceeding 30 years, Ponytail suggests negating that issue by having all of Obama's teeth removed and replaced with false teeth.

In order to facilitate the latter goal, Ponytail announces her intention to consult a dentist and (for exact reasons that can only be guessed at) a lawyer. Seeing where her current misplaced, and {{w|Dunning–Kruger effect|less than informed}}, zeal might be leading her, Cueball gives his prediction that the probable {{w|Supreme Court of the United States|ultimate legal arbiters}} of her plan might be unanimous in rejecting its validity (if not dissuading its attempt). SCOTUS being unanimous on an issue is now a [https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/07/as-unanimity-declines-conservative-majoritys-power-runs-deeper-than-the-blockbuster-cases/ comparatively rare event].

The title text references {{w|George Washington's teeth|George Washington's (in)famous 'false teeth'}}. Washington's dentures are often falsely claimed to be made of wood; in truth they were ''real'' teeth procured from other sources. Regardless, this would have likely resolved the rather specific problems established in the philosophical conundrum, and the title text claims that other presidents used this plan to get around the Constitutional limitations concerned in case they wanted to serve more than two terms.

However, no one has yet even ''needed'' to carry out this plan. Only one President has exceeded the limit; {{w|Franklin D. Roosevelt}} died in office during his ''fourth'' term, but he served prior to the 22nd Amendment and was thus unaffected by the rule, which was enacted six years after his death. (FDR did have a partial denture, but given that he retained some of his natural teeth, he did not engage in Ponytail's proposed scheme.) Presidents since then have definitely tried various schemes aimed at securing a second term, with both successes and failures, but nobody has yet planned ''this particular plan'' to achieve a third or beyond. Or at least one can assume that those that perhaps did (including, as noted, all those who were not yet 'required' to go to these lengths) failed to attain their goals for entirely different reasons.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Ponytail and Cueball are walking.]
:Ponytail: So this is 2024.
:Cueball: Yup. Guess it's an election year now.
:Ponytail: Again? Man, those just keep happening, huh?

:[Ponytail and Cueball now standing.]
:Ponytail: Who's the president these days, anyway? Is it still Obama?
:Cueball: What? No? He hasn't been... How do you not...

:[Ponytail and Cueball still standing.]
:Ponytail: Darn, I liked him. Is he running this time?
:Cueball: No, he's not allowed to.
:Ponytail: He's not? Why?
:Cueball: Constitution.

:[Ponytail checks her smartphone.]
:Phone: ''Amendment 22''
:Phone: No person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice
:Ponytail: What?? C'mon...

:[Ponytail talking to Cueball.]
:Ponytail: Don't all your cells get replaced every seven years, Ship of Theseus-style? Is he even the same person?
:Ponytail: Maybe "no person shall be elected more than twice" isn't a prohibition, it's more of an observation, like "you can't step in the same river twice."

:[Zoom in on Cueball.]
:Cueball: Isn't the cell thing a myth?
:Cueball: I think tooth enamel has a turnover half-life of 30+ years. His teeth molecules are probably the same.

:[Ponytail heads off with a finger raised.]
:Ponytail: So if Obama just gets false teeth, he can run again! I need to talk to a dentist and a lawyer!
:Cueball: The Supreme Court is about to vote 9-0 to block your number.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Elections]]
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Biology]]

2873: Supersymmetry

2023-12-28T19:40:49Z

172.71.178.219: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2873
| date = December 27, 2023
| title = Supersymmetry
| image = supersymmetry 2x.png
| imagesize = 313x375px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = High-speed collisions at the Baby Park track may support the hypothesis that Daisy is her own evil twin, a theory first suggested by Nintendo in the game Majorana's Mask.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by A RELATIVISTIC WALUIGI ANNIHILATING AN UNSUSPECTING LUIGI - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic imagines a "theory of supersymmetric Mario Bros." that merges the theoretical physics concept of {{w|supersymmetry}} (explained in detail [[#Background on subatomic particles|below]]) with another "super" thing, {{w|Super Mario Bros.}}, originally developed for the {{w|Nintendo Entertainment System}} and later the ''Super'' Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), two home game consoles popular during Randall's childhood. The comic humorously combines the two domains by equating certain subatomic particles and Mario game characters. Mario is the titular protagonist of his franchise and Luigi is his brother, and their centrality to the games being similar to the nucleus (proton and neutron) being the center of an atom.

In {{w|particle physics}}, a depiction such as a {{w|Feynman diagram}} can be used to try to explain elementary (and composite) particles, and how various interactions occur between them. At the atomic level, this may involve the bulky nucleons (protons and neutrons, these being each a particular triumvirate of quark 'flavors'), electrons (smaller, charged fermions) and various others (such as neutrinos, also fermions, chargeless and often ''nearly'' massless). Sometimes other more exotic/fundamental particles (force-mediating or otherwise transient) are included. The subatomic particles that feature in this comic, and their character equivalents, are:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto"
|-
! Particle !! Symbol !! Type !! Charge !! Mass !! Mario Character !! Notes
|-
| {{w|Proton}}
| p / p+
| Baryon ('uud' quarks)
| +1
| ≲1 {{w|Dalton (unit)|mu}}
| Mario
| The hero-protagonist of many of the games
|-
| {{w|Neutron}}
| n / n⁰
| Baryon ('udd' quarks)
| 0
| ≳1 mu
| Luigi
| The brother, and secondary protagonist, of many of the games
|-
| {{w|Antiproton}} (not involved in the diagram)
| p / p-
| Antibaryon ('uud' quarks)
| -1
| as proton*
| Wario
| Wario is the "evil" version of Mario
|-
| {{w|Antineutron}} (not involved in the diagram)
| n / n-0
| Antibaryon ('udd' quarks)
| 0
| as neutron*
| Waluigi
| Waluigi is the "evil" version of Luigi
|-
| {{w|Electron}}
| e-
| Lepton (charged)
| -1
| 5.5x10-4 mu
| (Princess) Peach
| The "damsel in distress" and/or reward-giver, when not a character in her own right
|-
| {{w|Positron}} / Antielectron (not depicted/involved)
| e+
| Antilepton (charged)
| +1
| as electron*

|-
| {{w|Electron Neutrino}}
| νe
| Lepton (uncharged)
| 0
| Assumed >0 (very small*)
| (Princess) Daisy
| Another "damsel in distress" and/or reward-giver, when not a character in her own right
|-
| Electron {{w|Neutrino#Antineutrinos|Antineutrino}} (not depicted, hypothetical)
| νe
| Antilepton (uncharged)
| 0
| as electron neutrino*

|}
<nowiki/>* - to within experimental error

Just as Mario is attracted to Princess Peach in the first generation of Mario games, so is the Mario particle (proton) attracted to the Peach particle (electron).

The "Free Luigi Decay" diagram is a {{w|Feynman diagram}} reinterpreting the process of {{w|free neutron decay}}. In Free Neutron Decay, a neutron that is left alone — not part of a nucleus — is unstable and one of its constituent quarks will transform, making a more stable proton, by emitting a W- boson, after around 10 to 30 minutes. The boson will then almost immediately decay into a suitable electron and neutrino. In Free Luigi Decay, the Luigi particle decay leads into there being a Mario, a Peach, and a (right-handed) Daisy. This would humorously explain why we don't see any Luigi-only video games.

The '''title text''' is a pun on the title of the Nintendo 64 game ''{{w|The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask}}'' and the concept of {{w|Majorana fermion}}, which attempts to reconcile how, while many particles have separate antiparticle counterparts, certain ones do not. Until this is resolved, scientists may depict a theoretical antiparticle in place of a neutrino in order to preserve various total values across the diagram. But scientists do wonder if a neutrino is its own antiparticle, much as they have also previously wondered if {{w|Neutrino oscillation|they also flip their 'flavor'}} as a way to explain certain experimental results.

Baby Park is an oval-shaped race track in the ''{{w|Mario Kart}}'' series and used as a particle collider in the title text, first featured in ''{{w|Mario Kart: Double Dash|Mario Kart: Double Dash!!}}'' on the Nintendo GameCube.

===Background on subatomic particles===
Added within the {{w|standard model}} are the "{{w|antiparticle}}s" that are oppositely charged (or built up of more fundamental antiparticles), and further issues have required extending this further through theories of '''supersymmetry''' which further adds counterparts that have alternate '{{w|Spin (physics)|spin}}'s.

The right-handed Daisy (Electron Neutrino) means that Daisy’s direction of spin (in subatomic terms, a measurement which does not now match that of the angular momentum in classical physics which inspired its naming) is the same as the direction of motion. A left-handed Daisy (Electron Neutrino) would have the opposite value.

Certain current understandings of the process require that the electron neutrino be an ''anti''neutrino, but antineutrinos have not so far been sufficiently confirmed to exist, with some theorising that a neutrino can be its own anti-particle (unlike the neutral neutron, composed of charged quarks, which has the similarly neutral antineutron, composed of oppositely charged antiquarks).

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:Mario : Proton
:Luigi : Neutron

:Wario : Antiproton
:Waluigi : Antineutron

:Peach : Electron
:Daisy : Electron neutrino

:Free Luigi decay:
:[Illustration of Luigi → Mario + Peach + Daisy]
:[Label below Daisy:] (Right-handed)

:[Caption below the panel:]
:The theory of Supersymmetric Mario Bros suggests that each fundamental particle has a Super Nintendo partner.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Mario Kart]]
[[Category:Physics]]

1932: The True Meaning of Christmas

2023-12-26T14:26:54Z

172.71.178.219: /* Explanation */ Tweaks (on top of *minor* corrections, for things that were no worse than my Danish would have looked like).

{{comic
| number = 1932
| date = December 22, 2017
| title = The True Meaning of Christmas
| image = the_true_meaning_of_christmas.png
| titletext = They all made fun of Autometalogolex, but someday there will be a problem with Christmas that can only be solved if Santa somehow gets a serious headache, and then they'll see.
}}

==Explanation==
This is the first of two [[:Category:Christmas|Christmas comics]] in a row celebrating Christmas of 2017. The next being [[1933: Santa Facts]], released upon Christmas Day itself. This was the first time that a year with two Christmas comics had one released as early as December 22nd. Otherwise, it has always been in the range from December 23-26th. (As of 2023 it is still the only such comic released on the 22nd. In 2023 this was also the last release day before Christmas, but the earlier date was not specifically Christmas-themed that year.)

It is making fun of the common trope in popular media that the {{tvtropes|TrueMeaningOfChristmas|true meaning of Christmas}} is about family, friends, and sharing the Christmas Spirit. It subverts the trope by suggesting that once the stories of the "True Meaning of Christmas" become sufficiently common, the real true meaning becomes to spread those stories. Thus the search for the "True Meaning of Christmas" is itself the meaning of Christmas, in a sort of "the journey is the reward" discovery.

In the last panel and title text, "Autometalogolex" is a {{w|neologism}} of Randall's, which can be broken down to its various prefixes and the root:
:"Auto-" - Greek meaning "self."
:"Meta-" - Greek meaning "after," "beyond," or "in reference to."
:"Logo-" - Greek meaning "word" or "speech."
:"Lex" - "lexis" is another Greek word meaning "word"; but in this case it is more likely to be a shortening of "lexicon" (another word for dictionary), or perhaps a reference to the process of "lexing" (lexical analysis), part of the process of computer analysis of text.
Thus, "Autometalogolex" would literally mean "A word that refers to itself in the dictionary," or more precisely "the act of looking up the definition of autometalogolex", which leads to a recursion, as all ''meaning of Christmas'' stories do. Recursion and self-reference is a [[:Category:Self-reference|recurring theme]] in xkcd.

The term Autometalogolex might also refer to autological words, words that refer to a property of the word itself. ("noun" is a noun, "pentasyllabic" is pentasyllabic [has 5 syllables]). "Autometalogolex" is a 'meta' version of the looking up (lex) of an autological word.

[[Cueball]] finally states that Autometalogolex is his least favorite of {{w|Santa Claus's reindeer}}. This is not among the commonly quoted list of names: ''Dasher'', ''Dancer'', ''Prancer'', ''Vixen'', ''Comet'', ''Cupid'', ''Donder'', and ''Blitzen''.{{Citation needed}} As the title text reveals this ninth reindeer could be a reference to {{w|Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer}}, who was not accepted by the others until Santa had problems and asked it to lead the other reindeer pulling the sleigh. The title text may also imply the only effective outcome of Autometalogolex (or the newly defined Christmas) is giving headaches, as with many self-referential concepts. As headaches generally are bad, Autometalogolex is not accepted, but - as in a typical Christmas story, here driven into the absurd realm - Santa needed a headache, and Autometalogolex was there to save the day.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is talking to a guy wearing a Santa hat.]
:Cueball: You’re looking festive.
:Santa Hat: I love Christmas!
:Cueball: Really? Doesn’t seem like your kind of thing.
:Santa Hat: It’s our most meta holiday!

:[Same setting.]
:Cueball: How so?
:Santa Hat: All our Christmas stories now are about discovering the “true meaning of Christmas.”

:[The same setting in a frame-less panel where Santa Hat shrugs.]
:Cueball: Huh, yeah. And then sharing it with others.
:Santa Hat: At some point, that quest itself ''became'' the true meaning.

:[Same setting with Santa Hat holding a hand to his chin.]
:Cueball: Like a word whose definition is “the act of looking up the definition of this word.”
:Santa Hat: “Autometalogolex”?
:Cueball: My least favorite of Santa’s reindeer.

==Trivia==
*At the time this comic was released the expression ''Autometalogolex'' did not exist. But only a few hours later at {{w|Urban Dictionary}} this phrase got its first entries: [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Autometalogolex Urbandictionary Autometalogolex].
*It appears that HopJacker Brewer makes a beer named ''Autometalogolex'', presumably named after this comic. There are [https://untappd.com/b/hopjacker-brewery-autometalogolex/2550579/photos multiple] [http://www.rutlandcamra.org.uk/2018/02/27/empingham-cricket-club-beer-festival-beer-list/ references] to it online, though it doesn't appear on [http://hopjacker.co.uk/beers/ HopJacker's own webpage], so it is possible that this beer doesn't exist and folks are just trolling beer drinkers to get them to autometalogolex.
*Some believe that the Santa Hat character is actually [[Black Hat]], owing to the Santa hat in question being black (the character's behavior, and [[Cueball]]'s comment that Santa Hat doesn't seem to be the type to enjoy Christmas match Black Hat's personality perfectly). However, the Santa hat may actually be meant to be red but rendered as black because the comic is in black-and-white (although it's worth nothing that in [[361: Christmas Back Home]] and [[838: Incident]], Christmas clothing was shown as red, not black). Santa Hat's identity is therefore unclear. But that was of course [[:Category:Comics with color|Comics with color]] which is not the norm in xkcd, which is why there is a category for those. In black and white comics it makes no sense to discuss that a black Santa hat must be black.
**But already in the next comic where the "real" Santa is described his red Santa Hat is drawn black, thus proving that it is not a black hat because it is black in the comic.
**Since there are many comics with [[:Category:Multiple Cueballs|Multiple Cueballs]], it could just as well be Cueball with a Santa Hat and another guy asking him about it.
**As there is no way to decide, then the best description of this comic is that Cueball is talking to a guy with a Santa Hat.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Christmas]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Characters with hats]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Self-reference]]
[[Category:Language]]

2771: College Knowledge

2023-10-08T15:28:03Z

172.71.178.219: Undo revision 325147 by Pipipipipiale (talk) Whadya mean "huh?"? Don't understand the arbitrary editing out...

{{comic
| number = 2771
| date = May 3, 2023
| title = College Knowledge
| image = college_knowledge_2x.png
| imagesize = 649x266px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'Your chitin armor is no match for our iron-tipped stingers! Better go hide in your jars!' --common playground taunt
}}

==Explanation==
A common playground rhyme which children will often recite when divided by gender is that "girls go to college to get more knowledge; boys go to {{w|Jupiter}} to get more stupider," with the genders being interchangeable depending on the rhyme's singer.

Starting out with this cadence, three characters (or child versions) {{w|Skipping rope|jump rope}} and explore parts of the solar system and beyond by taking it in turns to provide the rhythm's tempo. First [[Jill]] (who is turning the left end of the rope), then a [[Cueball]] (at the right), followed by a [[Ponytail]] (doing the jumping), before returning to Jill. As they concentrate on various stellar bodies that are harder and harder to rhyme, their chants become increasingly hesitant and obscure, ruining the rhythm, and resulting in ever more contrived "rhymes", to the point where they eventually seem compelled to abandon the whole game.

The title text refers back to some of the rhymes the characters mention, making sure to stay consistent with whichever gender acquires which object. Speaking from the perspective of the college-bound gender, who had acquired {{w|ferrous}} iron from {{w|Eris}} (or perhaps {{wiktionary|ferrous|become more composed of it}}, by {{w|Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed|bodily transformation}}), the girls playfully threaten the boys with iron-tipped {{w|stinger}}s, for which the boys' acquired armor of {{w|chitin}} (a material commonly found on the exoskeletons of various insects, including in any stings these might normally have) from {{w|Triton}} is purportedly no match. The girls then also refer to the jars which the boys had acquired from {{w|Mars}}, telling the boys that they'd better hide in them if they wanted any sort of protection from the iron-tipped stingers. To top it all off, the title text finally claims that this is supposedly a "common playground taunt" among children, which implies the unlikely outcome that the bizarre and unwieldy rhymes which the characters in the comic created have somehow persisted and passed into common usage enough to be generally recognizable.

In [[1202: Girls and Boys]], boys and girls both go to college ''and'' to Jupiter, both to get more knowledge.

==Notes==
*Going to Mars to get more jars may be a reference to a 1955 {{w|Burma-Shave}} campaign promising a free trip to Mars for whoever sent in 900 empty jars. The joking offer was accepted by a Wisconsin shopkeeper named Arliss French. The company enjoyed the publicity and sent him and his wife to {{w|Moers}}.
*{{w|Ceres (dwarf planet)|Ceres}} is a dwarf planet in the asteroid belt, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
*{{w|Chitin}} is a polysaccharide found in the exoskeletons of insects and cell walls of fungi.
*{{w|Tim Berners-Lee}} is the inventor of the World Wide Web.
*{{w|Pamplemousse}} is the French word for grapefruit or pomelo, depending on dialect. Note that it does not actually rhyme with Betelgeuse for {{w|Betelgeuse#Spelling and pronunciation|most pronunciations}}, only when pronounced like ''Beetlejuice'' does this line's final syllable rhyme.
*It could be debated whether these are three children, and thus not Cueball and Ponytail, who are adult, but there is nothing to compare them to, and Jill has also been drawn as an adult. So, for ease of naming them, it is easier to keep the names even if these are children.

==Transcript==
:[Jill, Ponytail and Cueball are jumping rope while singing a common playground song. Jill and Cueball are swinging the ends of the rope, Ponytail is jumping in the middle facing Cueball on the right. The rope is going so fast around her that it is drawn with four thin gray lines, one over and one below her and two in between, so they form a kind of 3D ellipsoid shape around her. Small lines indicate the movement of the rope and the hands that hold it.]
:Jill: Girls go to college to get more knowledge
:Jill: Boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider

:[Same scene but Ponytail is at a different moment in her jumping.]
:Cueball: Girls go to Ceres to get more theories
:Cueball: Boys go to Mars to get more jars

:[Same scene but Ponytail is at a different moment in her jumping.]
:Ponytail: Girls go to Eris to get more ferrous
:Ponytail: Boys go to Triton to get more chitin

:[The three have stopped playing so the rope is hanging from the hands of Jill and Cueball, running along the ground beneath Ponytail's feet. She is now just standing but has turned towards Jill.]
:Jill: Girls go to...Mercury...to...meet Tim Berners-Lee
:Jill: Boys go to... ...Betelgeuse...to get more... ...pamplemousse
:Cueball: I think we're done.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Jill]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]] 
[[Category:Games]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Food]]

Talk:2833: Lying

2023-09-27T01:29:34Z

172.71.178.219:

Why the heck is the image so biiiiig? {{unsigned ip|172.69.135.23|03:54, 26 September 2023}}
:well, looks like he accidentally published the source file for the comic... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.100.205|141.101.100.205]] 04:06, 26 September 2023 (UTC)
::Good. People should be using HD monitors by now. (EDIT: I didn't realize it was 8k, but still, don't most browsers let you resize images anyway?) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.188|172.70.126.188]] 08:41, 26 September 2023 (UTC)
:::Why do I have to lug around an HD monitor as well as my smart-tablet?
::::Why doesn't your smart-tablet have an HD screen? My phone is 2960 x 1440 and it still fits in my pocket. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.127.168|172.70.127.168]] 00:29, 27 September 2023 (UTC)
:::(Actually, it's not width that's the problem, for me, but height. As using in portrait orientation makes text too small for browsing, and I hate sites that 'mobile optimise' assuming I'll turn my device that way.)
::::Most mobile browsers have a button for "show desktop version". I just hate when people assume vertical videos are okay. Even when I'm using my phone, landscape is better. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.100.65|172.70.100.65]] 00:30, 27 September 2023 (UTC)
:::::Do you know how well the "show desktop version" ''doesn't'' work. It frequently doesn't switch away from the mobile-URL (e.g. "en.m.wikipedia.org" to "en.wikipedia.org", or "/FOO-mobile.htm" to "/FOO.htm") and you still have to make that sort of change manually to the address-bar to fuly jailbreak out of the hard-coded "useful" mobile functionality (which may come back once it forgets your preference and gets redirected to use them all again), and I'm pretty sure that the places that do this detection invisibly (fingerprinting the browser used) to make the changes behind the scenes don't all fully honour the browser setting, perhaps just get over-riden by some more insistent indicator that the site-author has encoded later in the decesion-stack (e.g., at least for me, I ''cannot'' get the non-mobile layout of https://cyclingtimetrials.org.uk/find-events to display on this device, for whatever reason).
:::Note that especially wide images play merry-hell with the rest of the page (when it breaks out of the pixel-limits assumed), and an image that's twice as large (in both dimensions) could be quadruple the data (depending upon image compression ratios), which has data/bandwidth/etc issues that not everyone can easily suck up and laugh off, even in this post dial-up era. It ought to be best not to assume that the best quality image is the 'best' or desired, although that ship has long sailed. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.83|172.71.242.83]] 09:08, 26 September 2023 (UTC)
::::Unless I'm misunderstanding, the image is now in the usual size range (590x887 in this case). -- [[User:Dtgriscom|Dtgriscom]] ([[User talk:Dtgriscom|talk]]) 20:32, 26 September 2023 (UTC)
:::::Something changed, yes. I haven't yet investigated if it was softcoded ("imagewidth=" in the template, or whatever it is, but perhaps still serving the full image to scale-down) or the uploaded image reuploaded in the 'friendlier' pixel-sizes. And for me it doesn't matter, but obviously the exact solution may be just as important for others, so I hope it isn't just the fudged one. (I may go and check, though I currently have no power to do anything about it.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.174|141.101.98.174]] 01:11, 27 September 2023 (UTC)
:::::Addendum: Just checked, and it was ''softcoded too large'', originally, with "imagesize = 4422x6653px" for some unknown reason. I don't know why the uploadbot set it like this (incorrect metadata/sidedata at source?) but that definitely 'broke' the original page.
:::::Until just now I had only seen the slightly later version or the page where the image now merely strained the page-size (from a revised imagesize=, obviously to deal with the page-rescaling issue), then the latest where it's given the more usual one (but is still the exact same source _2x image behind the scenes).
:::::From all the talk about this, I had assumed that the image (like it sometimes has been) was the 'compositing' version not yet cleaned up by Randall to remove onion-skin 'planning' layers, etc. Instead, we were just given an upscaled correct version, but of course people were still able to dwell upon the details exposed by zooming in. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.219|172.71.178.219]] 01:29, 27 September 2023 (UTC)

The rhythm of the title text calls to mind Spock's words to Kirk as he's dying at the end of Wrath of Khan: "I have been, and always shall be, your friend." This can't be a coincidence. {{unsigned ip|172.70.210.182|08:06, 26 September 2023}}

I'm the same. Can't stand these games. I have a hard enough time with jokes that people refuse to explain; if I have to _intentionally_ mislead people, who know my tics to start, where's the line? What's real, what's fake, what's important, what's just another joke?

I need to lighten up? No, the world needs to be comprehensible. I can't just choose to know what's real and what isn't. Other people can very easily make it clear to me, if they so desire.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.2.39|162.158.2.39]] 06:35, 26 September 2023 (UTC)
:i, uh, good for you. [[user talk:lettherebedarklight|youtu.be/miLcaqq2Zpk]] 07:04, 26 September 2023 (UTC)
:Simple answer: Don't play those games.
:Non-simple answer: Learn how to play those games with your advanced hyper-analytical abilities being used to your advantage (or as a "non-optional social convention") in which the reality is the game you're in and thus you are fulfilling the role of your existence.
:Meta-answer: I think you're a Joker (winning condition is to be lynched). Or maybe one of a number of other player-types which demands that you play differently from either mainstrean Mafia or vanilla Villager. Which, in a four-player game (very short of practical assignments!) makes it a bastard-setup of some sort. (Rather than single mafia/werewolf and all the rest vanilla village, or ''possibly'' one cop/special-role of some kind.) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.83|172.71.242.83]] 09:08, 26 September 2023 (UTC)

How do you even play Mafia with four people? Under standard rules, you have one moderator (Alice), one mafioso (Bob) and two civilians (Charlotte and Dave). Bob kills Dave in the first night, then there are only one mafioso and one civilian left, and the mafia wins, game over. Does anybody know a mod that would make it work with so few players? [[User:Comsmomf|Comsmomf]] ([[User talk:Comsmomf|talk]]) 11:16, 26 September 2023 (UTC)
:It's a Mafia-''style'' game, apparently. It could be moderatorless (or with a playing-controller who manages the gameplay outwith whatever role they have) and streamlined.
:How about four (playing?)cards, one designating the villain. Cards are dealt randomly an all close their eyes for the night phase, only the villain gets to open them and 'tap out' their choice of villager (some subtle way, like a feather on a stick ((not shown in comic!)) that everyone has, that can be used at will to silently reach anyone - reverse the stick to tap the centre of the table to signal completion?).
:Because that leaves little logic for the Town to follow, just blindly moving towards "lynch or lose" by luck, you can afford (maybe) a Cop role (from a different card) who then operates after that, at 'night'. They use ''their'' stick to ask a given player to thumbs up/down their status, with the and/or you even could do a Blocker that way (tell a victim to ignore being night-killed), etc. Or even mix things up with a role-giving role, whatever you need to balance play in the right way. 'Dead' night-role players could just 'tap completion' without having done anything, if there's no lynch-reveal (beyond town/scum, if even that before the sole scum announces this game is over and they won/lost).
:It'd have to be on the honour-system, and I could see mistakes and accidental reveals, but the post-mortem of a few such games might suggest refinements and precautions that haven't occured to me.
:...though it'd be easier (even 'player led') with maybe a minimum of six participants (could afford to have two villains, subtly gesturing ideas to each other, and a more complete set of "power townies" than just the one. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.134.192|172.71.134.192]] 12:51, 26 September 2023 (UTC)

I guess I just assumed every comic out there by anyone was printed with Comic Sans but when I was skimming through the source image I noticed the letters are unique and he hand-writes them. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.179.43|172.70.179.43]] 12:09, 26 September 2023 (UTC)

: Yes that's always been noticable from the kerning. His habit of tucking the left-hand vertical of an "H" under a preceding "T" - and shortening the left side of a "T" after an "I" (to pick just two examples)...is not something that any automated text rendering system that I'm aware of can produce. --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.167.135|172.71.167.135]] 12:25, 26 September 2023 (UTC)
::Also, his O's are quite noticably different from one another. Perfect repetition of loop sizes is a dead giveaway of a "handwritten" font. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.44|172.69.247.44]] 14:22, 26 September 2023 (UTC)

904: Sports

2023-07-27T07:51:07Z

172.71.178.219: Undo revision 319703 by JonathanDavidArndt (talk) I see what you mean, I think, but you'd have to potentially explain "In Real Life" expanded/linked. Also eSports generate them

{{comic
| number = 904
| date = May 27, 2011
| title = Sports
| image = sports.png
| titletext = Also, all financial analysis. And, more directly, D&D.
}}

==Explanation==
A random number generator is any object or program that arbitrarily selects and produces a number from within a pre-defined range of numbers. For example, a single six-sided die will produce any integer between 1 and 6, inclusive. In an unweighted random number generator, every number that it can possibly produce has the same odds of coming up. When rolling a single {{w|Dice#Manufacturing|precision die}}, for instance, there is an equal chance of rolling a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6. Conversely, in a weighted random number generator, some numbers are more likely to come up than others. For example, when rolling two dice, a seven is far more likely to come up than a two, as there are six possible ways to roll a seven but only one way to roll a two.

All sports generate numbers that are inherently random. Home runs, goals, sacks, passes, shots, hits, misses, errors, and many more such statistics are generated in every match of every sports game. The rules of the particular sport, as well as the skill of the participants, introduces bias toward certain values; hence, sports matches are weighted random number generators.

If the generator is weighted to favor a specific team in a specific game, that is discussed. Then the results of the game (more random numbers) are discussed. It's the discussion that is the narrative part. If a player breaks a record, that becomes part of the narrative. The number is random, but weighted because of player skill or the rules of the sport.

{{w|College athletics|College sports}} in the US are especially prone to this kind of narrative-first journalism with their penchant for using more arbitrary systems of placement to determine postseason play than professional sports which have almost all standardized their systems around sometimes highly complicated metrics to determine who reaches the postseason. Prime examples of this are the new ''{{w|College Football Playoff}}'' which has a committee release polls every week after Week 9 of the college football season, with the top four teams in the final poll playing for the championship, and ''{{w|March Madness}}'' where a similar committee ranks the top 68 teams in the country in a bracket for the championship tournament. The old ''{{w|Bowl Championship Series}}'', which determined the NCAA Division I college football champion from 1998 to 2013, literally used computers generating numbers and algorithms based on team performance as a heavy part of their ranking systems that determined which two teams played for the championship at the end of the season.

The title text applies this to financial/stock results/forecasts as well and, most appropriately, to ''{{w|Dungeons & Dragons}}'' (''D&D''), a tabletop role-playing game. In ''D&D'' the players and {{w|Dungeon Master}} are forging a narrative about the characters and world they have collectively made up; the players all decide on courses of action (such as negotiating with townspeople, intimidating nobles, attacking monsters, to name a tiny fraction of possibilities) and whether they succeed is determined by rolling dice of various numbers of sides. The numerical results are woven into a narrative by the Dungeon Master.

This strip is one of several in which [[Randall]] affectionately trivializes sports (see for instance [[1107: Sports Cheat Sheet]], [[1480: Super Bowl]] and [[1507: Metaball]]).

==Transcript==
:[Two Cueball like commentators sit behind a desk.]
:Commentator to the left: A weighted random number generator just produced a new batch of numbers.
:Commentator to the right: Let's use them to build narratives!
:[Caption below the panel:]
:All sports commentary

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Sport]]

2785: Marble Run

2023-06-07T13:49:25Z

172.71.178.219: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2785
| date = June 5, 2023
| title = Marble Run
| image = marble_run_2x.png
| imagesize = 438x512px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I have so many plans. It would incorporate a Galton board, a Ranque-Hilsch marble vortex tube, and a compartment lined with pinball bouncers with a camera-and-servo Maxwell's Demon that separated the balls into fast and slow sides.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by MAXWELL'S DEMON - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT roll away this tag too soon.}}
A {{w|Rube Goldberg machine}} is a fancifully complex system (either real or imagined), which makes use of an overly elaborate chain of actions. The name comes from an American cartoonist who was one of those who became famous for depicting convoluted and outlandish processes for accomplishing simple tasks.

There's a long history of people building actual contraptions along these lines. Such devices are almost never intended for practical purposes, but exist entirely for entertainment, and as an exercise in building complex and carefully planned systems. This has become particularly common in the internet age, as videos of particularly interesting examples can gain popularity online. The most common category of these systems is probably the marble run (also known as a {{w|rolling ball sculpture}}), in which the goal of the system is to move one or more balls or marbles from the beginning of the arrangement to the end in interesting ways. This contrasts to the {{w|Domino toppling|domino run}} where motions are transferred by many intermediate pieces painstakingly arranged, although both aspects are commonly combined in such contrivances.

When [[Megan]] tries to show [[Cueball]] an example of such a video, he refuses, not because he lacks interest, but because of how he predicts it will impact him. Cueball (likely as a stand-in for [[Randall]]), has sufficiently strong interest in things like designing, building and engineering complexity that he's certain he will eventually adopt building such systems as a hobby, and that it will dominate his time and attention. Accordingly, he appears to be deliberately delaying his exposure to them so that he can continue to pursue other hobbies, with the assumption that he will eventually succumb to this one.

Megan responds that he knows where he's going, but is taking "a really interesting and circuitous path" to get there. This draws a parallel between the type of systems he's avoiding and his approach to life more generally.

The title text mentions specific ideas Cueball plans to incorporate into such a device.

A {{w|Galton board}} is a device that distributes falling balls into a {{w|normal distribution}}. Its design is similar to those used in {{w|pachinko}}-style games.

A Ranque-Hilsch {{w|Vortex tube}} is a device for separating compressed gas into hot and cold streams. While such a device isn't directly applicable to marbles, one can imagine using the principle to separate a stream of marbles based on speed.

Pinball bouncers are properly supposed to be the {{w|Pinball#Bumpers|Bumpers}} in {{w|Pinball}} machines. In Randall's marble run there will be a compartment where the walls are lined with these bumpers. Supposedly there will be many marbles on the floor of this segment of the run, which will hit these bumpers and get a kick so they will move fast and randomly around the compartment, which is where the Demon comes in.

{{w|Maxwell's Demon}} is a thought experiment by James Clerk Maxwell which would violate the {{w|Second Law of Thermodynamics}}. Maxwell proposed that, if a container of air was separated by a divider, with a door that allowed only one molecule through at a time, and a theoretical "demon" were to control the door to sort high-energy atoms into one side and low-energy atoms into the other, the two sides would develop a temperature difference with no energy input. The problems are many: first of all, how would the door open and close without using energy; and how would the demon gain knowledge of the speed and position of all the molecules, particularly at the same time, in violation of Heisenberg's {{w|uncertainty principle}}?

Randall's version of this apparently involves a large number of marbles bouncing around inside the bouncer-lined compartment, with an automated system to divert the fastest moving marbles into one side, and the slowest moving into the other. As these are macroscopic scales this would not be impossible, just really difficult. It would be interesting to see the result, but if it was possible to construct the device, soon one segment would have slow moving balls and the other lots of fast moving balls. Randall foresees the amount of time he might use if he first began trying to construct his ideas into a marble run.

Knowing Randall and his fans, some might design something using his ideas from this comic.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Megan is walking towards Cueball and showing her phone. Cueball holds a hand to his face and looks away.]
:Megan: Check out this cool video of a Rube Goldberg marble run.
:Cueball: No! Not yet.

:[Megan has lowered her phone. Cueball has his hand in a fist.]
:Cueball: I've always known I'm doomed to eventually become one of those people who builds elaborate marble runs in their garage.
:Cueball: I can feel the pull.
:Cueball: So satisfying.

:[Close-up on Cueball.]
:Cueball: I just want to do as many other things as I can before I give in and disappear into that world.

:[Megan and Cueball are walking.]
:Megan: So you know where you're going to end up, but you're trying to take a really interesting and circuitous path to get there.
:Cueball: Exactly. Bounce around, maybe go off a few jumps.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Statistics]]